The
words and phrases are spoken and written day after day, year after year
- generally without any wonderment as to how they became part of the
language. All have a history, a story.

With the 2017 edition of spring training to beging and another season
to follow, a brief sampler follows of some of the singular baseball
names follow:

AMAZIN' METS The first run they ever scored came in on a balk. They
lost the first nine games they ever played. They finished last their
first four seasons. Once they were losing a game, 12-1, and there were
two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. A fan held up a sign that
said "PRAY!" There was a walk, and ever hopeful, thousands of voices
chanted, "Let's go Mets." They were 100-l underdogs to win the pennant
in 1969 and incredibly came on to finish the year as World Champions.
They picked the name of the best pitcher in their history (Tom Seaver)
out of a hat on April Fools' Day. They were supposed to be the
replacement for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. They
could have been the New York Continentals or Burros or Skyliners or
Skyscrapers or Bees or Rebels or NYB's or Avengers or even Jets
(all runner-up names in a contest to tab the National League New
York team that began playing ball in 1962). They've never been anything
to their fans but amazing-the Amazin' New York Mets.

BIG POISON and LITTLE POISON Paul Waner's rookie year with the
Pittsburgh Pirates was 1926, when he batted .336 and led the league in
triples. In one game he cracked out six hits using six different bats.
In 1927 the second Waner arrived, brother Lloyd. For 14 years, the
Waners formed a potent brother combination in the Pittsburgh lineup.
Paul was 5'8l/2'' and weighed 153 pounds. Lloyd was 5'9" and weighed
150 pounds.

Paul was dubbed Big Poison even though he was smaller than Lloyd, who
was called Little Poison. An older brother even then had privileges.
But both players were pure poison for National League pitchers.
Slashing left-handed line-drive hitters, the Waners collected 5,611
hits between them. Paul's lifetime batting average was .333, and he
recorded three batting titles. Lloyd posted a career average of .316.
They played a combined total of 38 years in the major leagues.

BONEHEAD MERKLE The phrase "pulling a bonehead play," or "pulling a
boner," is not only part of the language of baseball, but of all sports
and in fact, of the language in general. Its most dramatic derivation
goes back to September 9, 1908. Frederick Charles Merkle, a.k.a. George
Merkle, was playing his first full game at first base for the New York
Giants. It was his second season in the majors; the year before, he had
appeared in 15 games. The Giants were in first place and the Cubs were
challenging them. The two teams were tied, 1-1, in the bottom of the
ninth inning. With two outs, the Giants' Moose McCormick was on third
base and Merkle was on first. Al Bridwell slashed a single to center
field, and McCormick crossed the plate with what was apparently the
winning run. Merkle, eager to avoid the Polo Grounds crowd that surged
onto the playing field, raced directly to the clubhouse instead of
following through on the play and touching second base. Amid the
pandemonium, Johnny Evers of the Cubs screamed for the baseball,
obtained it somehow, stepped on second base, and claimed a forceout on
Merkle. When things subsided, umpire Hank O'Day agreed with Evers. The
National League upheld O'Day, Evers and the Cubs, so the run was
nullified and the game not counted. Both teams played out their
schedules and completed the season tied for first place with 98
wins and 55 losses. A replay of the game was scheduled, and Christy
Mathewson, seeking his 38th victory of the season, lost, 4-2, to
Three-Finger Brown (q.v.). The Cubs won the pennant. Although Merkle
played 16 years in the majors and had a lifetime batting average of
.273, he will forever be rooted in sports lore as the man who made the
"bonehead" play that lost the 1908 pennant for the Giants, for had he
touched second base there would have been no replayed game and the
Giants would have won the pennant by one game.

"B0O” Name for a day in 1979 of Giants shortstop Johnnie LeMaster, who
heard the boo-birds in San Fran. He took his field position wearing
"Boo" on his back. LeMaster switched back to his regular jersey
after one game.

"CHILI" When he was about 12 years old, Charles Davis was given a
not too attractive haircut which led to his getting the nickname "Chili
Bowl," later shortened to "Chili" as the boy became the man and the
baseball player "Chili" Davis.

GIANTS One sultry summer's day in 1885, Jim Mutrie, the
saber-mustached manager of the New York Gothams, was enjoying himself
watching his team winning an important game. Mutrie screamed out with
affection, "My big fellows, my giants." Many of his players were big
fellows, and they came to be Giants. For that was how the nickname
Giants came to be. And when the New York team left for San Francisco in
1958, Giants, Mutrie's endearing nickname, went along with it.

SPLENDID SPLINTER He was also nicknamed the Thumper, because of the
power with which he hit the ball, and the Kid, because of his
tempestuous attitude-but his main nickname was perhaps the most
appropriate. Ted Williams was one of the most splendid players who ever
lived, and he could really "splinter" the ball. The handsome slugger
compiled a lifetime batting average of .344 and a slugging percentage
of .634.

Williams blasted 521 career home runs, scored nearly 1,800 runs, and
drove in over 1,800 runs. So keen was his batting eye that he walked
over 2,000 times while striking out only 709 times. In 1941 he batted
.406 - the last time any player hit .400 or better. One of the most
celebrated moments in the career of the Boston Red Sox slugger took
place in the 1946 All-Star Game. Williams came to bat against Rip
Sewell and his celebrated "eephus" (blooper) pitch. Williams had
already walked in the game and hit a home run. Sewell's pitch came to
the plate in a high arc, and Williams actually trotted out to the
pitch, bashing it into the right-field bullpen for a home run. "That
was the first homer ever hit off the pitch," Sewell said later.

"The ball came to the plate in a twenty-foot arc," recalled Williams.
"I didn't know whether I'd be able to get enough power into that kind
of a pitch for a home run." There was no kind of pitch Williams
couldn't hit for a home run.

Dr.
Harvey Frommer, a professor at Dartmouth College in the
MALS program, is in his 4ist year of writing books. A noted oral
historian and
sports journalist, he is the author of 43 sports books including the
classics:
best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-1957″ and best-selling
Shoeless Joe
and Ragtime Baseball,as well as his acclaimed Remembering Yankee
Stadium and
best-selling Remembering Fenway Park. His highly praised When It Was
Just a
Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl was published last fall.